If you are fan of author Harlan Coban then you’ve read his frequent references to the Yiddish adage “Man Plans, God Laughs”. That sums it up for me over the past couple of month’s relative to RUNNH234. I write this blog after having gone nearly 2 months since running leg 17 (Sullivan to Gilsum) and hoping I’m ready to run leg 18 tomorrow - April 2, 2022 (Gilsum to Surry -- 7.6 miles).
I drew a map and laid out an extensive plan (quite a spreadsheet with a route connecting all 234 town hall addresses). I bought atlas maps and set up cork boards with location pins. I researched terrain and elevation -- knowing that the most difficult part of the challenge is that New Hampshire is not a flat state ... for sure!
I’ve consumed a lot of time thinking through route options and logistics. I challenged myself to come up with a running route that connects all the town halls within a county before moving on to the next county.
After finishing the first few legs with relative ease I convinced myself I had a working plan and formula for success. The next logical step was to share my plan by talking about it with friends and posting updates via social media. By talking about it and documenting it I’d be committed and on my way.
The first dozen legs went like clockwork - then the old urge to push myself harder and be more aggressive kicked in. No reason not to give it my best, but I hate to tell you that a 62 year old body with thousands of running miles on the legs doesn’t respond the same way as the body I knew when running marathons in my 30s and 40s. Why is it so hard to listen to my body and not ask it to do more than it’s ready for? Why do I tend to push through injuries? Easy answer – when it comes to running, I’m impatient and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. Running for me is a classic case where your performance is based on the effort you put in on your training. Where it used to be 3 parts training / 1 part rest and recovery I feel the ratio has flipped. It's hard to realize that rest and recovery are critical components in the formula for success.
So there I was running leg 13 (Keene to Roxbury) saying - this is under 3 miles, why don’t I just keep going and run leg 14 (Roxbury to Harrisville) the same day. What’s 12 miles when I’d run 10 the week before. Mistake. While leg 13 was short, the descent was fairly steep and I should have known better. Leg 14 was longer than most at nearly 10 miles with tough elevation climb, but I’d run that distance the week earlier from West Moreland to Keene and my fitness level was there … so I thought.
I got away with it that day, but paid the price with knee stiffness and a flair up of my torn meniscus related pain. Pushing through the next three weeks over snowy and icy roads (where footing was dicy) for legs 15 through 17 pushed me to the point where I knew there was no choice but to take a timeout. Each week the pain was getting worse. How could this happen after I was seeing steady fitness improvement?
Let’s just say that as we age we need to accept the fact that our bodies don’t recover the same ways they did when we were younger. For me there is often a disconnect between what my mind thinks my body should be able to do, and what my body is really ready to do. Some people are able to delay these effects and even get away with pushing through, but everyone is an experiment of one and we each need to pay attention to what our bodies are saying.
There were some benefits from being out of action the past two months:
The desire to keep at this challenge strengthened
My awareness of my body’s need for rest, recovery and cross training improved and I’ve now incorporated Tai Chi, biking, RICE, massage stick into my schedule. I'm trying also to eat an anti-inflammatory diet (was able to drop 5 lbs which lowers psi impact on knees).
I built a website, with my son’s huge help, to better track and document progress and give me an outlet for sharing my experiences.
We've driven a number of future legs so I can continue to feel connected to the challenge
BONUS: The weather and daylight is becoming more conducive to running and the travel needed to get to the different spots. Leg 23 has a section that is not passable in the winter (King St) as the road is not maintained - so I rationalized that delaying getting to this leg was all part of the plan.
I’m back in the saddle again, at least for this week, as I get ready to run leg 18 from Gilsum to Surry. I’ve run locally the past couple of week’s and stretched my runs so that I feel good about going 10 miles when I need to. One advantage in living in Dublin, NH - there's no shortage of hills. I purchased an Osprey water back pack and am more at peace with the fact I’ll be running at a pace I used to think of as jogging. So what - I try to keep reminding myself this is intended to be a fun exploration challenge and that the only one I’m looking to impress ….. selfishly ….. is me. In the scheme of what's happening in the world today what I'm doing is likely folly to others, but for me it is fulfilling.
So I’ll continue to plan and I expect God will continue to laugh, but I know we’ll be laughing together …. we should all have fun along the way and enjoy the journey through its twists and turns. It’s ok to make adjustments, recalibrate and alter your approach. Sometimes you plow through, sometimes you go with the flow. The destination is way in the distance – detours are just part of the story forming memories we make along the way .... one leg at a time.
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